DO-OVERS...

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. As usual, mine went way too fast. I've had a sick wife to take care of, had to work, and tried to find time to workout in between that. I did make it to the gym on Saturday, but I myself felt kind of bad, and decided to just leave before I got too into the workout because my strength was sapped.

Today, however, I had a GREAT workout!! I started taking Gaspari Nutrition Sizeon, and I'm fairly certain some size will be packing on. I actually had to make myself stop working out I had so much energy. Sizeon is a Creatine product. And as in my previous blogs, I've explained that Creatine is one of the most important supplements out there if you want to build muscle. The only disadvantage of the SizeOn is possible weight gain. So I have to be sure to watch calories very closely. I weighed 272 today, so I haven't lost any more weight this week. But that's okay. Weight fluctuates. It happens!

Anyway, here's todays workout, and I'll discuss the Tabata training from Thursday after this one!! Going to start posting things a bit differently. I'm starting to enter my workouts on bodybuilding.com to track progress, so I'm just taking a screen shot of the workout to post. Click the picture to see the workout in a larger size. Here you go!!


(note: where it says 0 on reps, it means go to failure)

Now, about the Tabata training. I think it's something I may start doing for a few months, but Thursday my wife and I did a run-thru. Basically, it's a weight training/cardio routine all wrapped up in one.

The premise is, there are 3-4 exercises per workout per muscle group. You do 8 sets per exercise. You do as many reps at 50-70% of your maximum weight you can handle for 20 seconds. That's one set. You rest 10 seconds, then repeat for a total of eight sets. If you've chosen the right weight (which I already can tell is trial and error), both your muscles and your heart will be begging for mercy by the end of the workout. We did arms and triceps on Thursday. And all I can say is, it's the real deal. I'm not going to post a picture for this one because it would be very large. So here is how it played out:

TABATA ARMS AND TRICEPS ROUTINE

Warm Up
5 minutes of light eliptical cardio. Good stretch of the arms!

Lying Triceps Press (Skullcrushers)
8 Sets: 30 pounds

Triceps Pushdown
8 Sets: 35 pounds

Cable Overhead Tricep Extension
4 Sets: 30 pounds
4 Sets: 25 pounds

Standing Barbell Curl
8 Sets: 30 pounds

Incline Dumbbell Curl
8 Sets: 12.5 pounds

Cable Hammer Curl (Rope Attachment)
8 Sets: 30 pounds

Barbell Wrist Curl
8 Sets: 20 pounds

Reverse Grip Barbell Curl
8 Sets: 30 pounds

I wasn't completely wiped out by the end of this workout. I think it had something to do with experimentation of the proper weight. I think next time it will be very intense. I don't know if beginners should try this, as it is very muscle and heart intensive. But if you want to find out what you're made of, I'd highly recomment this!!

Taking tomorrow off, but I'll be hitting the weights Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'll be sure to update you on the progress, and have some great new music and maybe a couple product reviews for you to check out. Have a great night!!

LONG LIVE THE CHEAT MEAL!!

I've just stuffed myself with enough Indian food that I'm feeling pretty rough. And boy is it nice!! Like I've said, cheating is part of dieting. If you don't do it every now and again, you'll fall off the wagon, and sometimes not get back on. So yeah, today I had my cheat meal of the week, and being this full makes me eager to get back on track. Funny how that works. I DID cheat today. However, I also hit the gym for 2 hours for an arm workout and some cardio. I'm getting to be incapable of just being a "fat kid" anymore. Not that that's a bad thing. I took the same supplements today as in my last post, so check back to that one to see what all I took. Here we go:

WORKOUT
5 minutes on the eliptical for warm-up at moderate resistance.

Machine Preacher Curl
Sets 1 and 2: 30 pounds, 15 reps
Sets 3-5: 50 pounds, 10 reps

Cable Hammer Curls
3 Sets: 80 pounds, 10 reps

Incline Dumbbell Press
Sets 1 and 2: 30 pounds, 10 reps
Sets 3 and 4: 25 pounds, 12 reps

Overhead Cable Curl
3 Sets: 45 pounds (each arm), 10 reps

Seated Tricep Dumbbell Extension
3 Sets: 50 pounds, 10 reps

Triceps Pushdown
3 Sets: 60 pounds, 12 reps

Overhead Cable Tricep Extension
3 Sets: 50 pounds, 12 reps

Skullcrushers
3 Sets: 60 pounds, 8 reps

21's
2 Sets: 50 pounds, 21 reps

Wrist Curl
2 Sets: 40 pounds, 20 reps

Reverse Curl
2 Sets: 40 pounds, 15 reps

Crunches
3 Sets: To failure

Cardio
24 minutes: 2 minutes low intensity, 2 minutes high, repeated 12 times.

I'll probably not do any lifting again until Monday or Tuesday. I'm pretty depleted from today's workout, but I feel great. If I had to pick the exercise not to miss in this workout, I'd tell you to not miss the Incline Dumbbell Press. When done properly, it really stretches out the long head of the bicep and will eventually give you peak you're looking for in your arms. I'm starting to see it more and more every time I work out.

Also, hit the wrist curls and reverse curls hard at the end of your set. When the forearms start lagging behind the rest of your arms, they can start to hurt severely when doing heavy curls. I know this from firsthand experience, and make sure to never miss working the forearms.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend, and has hit the gym at least once before it's over! But it's Saturday. Get out and have a good time! We all need it sometimes! Talk to you soon!

STRETCH ARMSTRONG- LIVE AT DOWNTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT